Former APD cop charged in Vietnam visa scandal

Hundreds of visas sold for millions paid in bribes

Updated 8:54 am, Saturday, June 1, 2013

Michael T. Sestak, a Navy intelligence officer and former Albany police officer, is charged in a multi-million dollar bribery scheme related to his work at a U.S. consulate in Vietnam.

Michael T. Sestak, a Navy intelligence officer and former Albany police officer, is charged in a multi-million dollar bribery scheme related to his work at a U.S. consulate in Vietnam.

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Michael T. Sestak left the Albany police force in 1999 to become a U.S. marshal. He later joined the Navy and worked for the Department of State at consulates in Poland, Spain and Columbia. He was arrested last month, accused of conspiracy to commit visa fraud in a multi-million dollar bribery scheme in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. less

Michael T. Sestak left the Albany police force in 1999 to become a U.S. marshal. He later joined the Navy and worked for the Department of State at consulates in Poland, Spain and Columbia. He was arrested last ... more

Former APD cop charged in Vietnam visa scandal

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A former Albany police officer, who is also a Navy intelligence officer, has been charged in a multimillion-dollar bribery case in which he allegedly sold tourist visas to Vietnamese citizens while working as a foreign service officer at a U.S. Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon.

The charges against Michael T. Sestak, 41, who joined the Albany police force in August 1992, are outlined in a federal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Sestak was arrested May 13 in California.

The federal complaint accuses Sestak of conspiring with at least five people, including the director of a multinational company in Vietnam, to sell tourist visas to possibly hundreds of Vietnamese citizens who paid as much as $50,000 to $70,000 each to enter the United States. One of the alleged conspirators, Hong Vo, is the sister of the unidentified man who runs the multinational company in Ho Chi Minh City. Vo is a 27-year-old U.S. citizen who was born and raised in Colorado and is a 2008 graduate of the University of Denver, according to court records.

Vo was arrested May 8 in Denver and is being held in federal custody without bond. Her attorney, Sandi Rhee, filed a motion Friday in Washington, D.C., requesting a hearing to have her client released. The government has opposed Vo's release, claiming she is a flight risk.

The conspirators recruited customers through advertisements and a small network of U.S. and Vietnamese residents, targeting people who "generally would not be able to get visas on their own, such as people who had been previously refused visas, people who resided in the countryside, (and) people who had not traveled outside of Vietnam," according to the criminal complaints.

In an email exchange last July, Vo and an acquaintance discussed recruiting customers willing to pay "about $50,000" to get the United States. "It's only for a tourist Visa (not citizenship) but once you go ... you can disappear (get married) or return back to Vietnam and get the green light to go whenever you apply for another Visa to go to the States," she wrote, according to the complaint.

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U.S. Department of State investigators allege Sestak became an acquaintance of Vo's family members in Vietnam at a time when he was personally responsible for approving U.S. travel visas. Sestak's rate of approving the highly coveted documents increased significantly a year ago, around the time the bribery conspiracy began, according to the federal complaint.

"Sestak received several million dollars in bribes for approving the visas," according to the federal complaint that charges him with conspiracy to commit visa fraud and bribery. "He ultimately moved the money out of Vietnam by using money launderers through off-shore banks, primarily based in China, to move funds to a bank account in Thailand that he opened in May 2012."

Sestak left the Albany police force in 1999 to become a U.S. marshal, according to police officers who know him. He joined the Navy in 2001, rising to the rank of lieutenant commander and serving as an intelligence officer during tours that included assignments in the Pacific, Europe and Washington, D.C., according to military records.

Court records indicate Sestak was employed at the consulate in Vietnam from August 2010 until September 2012, when he left Vietnam for a Navy active-duty tour. He was arrested two weeks ago in California, where he was on a Navy detail. A federal magistrate determined Sestak is a flight risk and ordered him held without bond pending an appearance in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

Federal agents with the Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service said their criminal investigation began in July 2012. That's when the U.S. Consulate where Sestak worked received a letter from a confidential source claiming that more than 50 people in a Vietnam village had paid around $55,000 each to obtain "guaranteed" tourist visas to the United States. The letter included names, dates of birth and photographs of seven people who purchased the visas, including five whose applications were approved by Sestak.

Four of the five conspirators in the scheme live in Vietnam. They include the Vietnamese businessman and his wife, Vo, Vo's "significant other," and a cousin of the unidentified businessman. The group allegedly submitted visa applications, arranged appointments at the consulate for the applicant and helped them prepare for visa interviews by providing sample questions and answers.

"Soon after submitting the visa application — in typically 3 days or less — the customer would receive an appointment at the consulate, be interviewed by Sestak, and be approved for a visa," states an affidavit by Simon Dinits, a DSS special agent.

Many of the electronically approved visas were traced to a computer and scanner used by Sestak at his consulate office.

The investigators also used search warrants to review emails attributed to Sestak and his alleged conspirators, who in some cases communicated through a "virtual private network" managed by Black Oak Computers Inc., a California computer service company. A VPN is an encryption system that provides Internet browsers with anonymity, including access to websites that may have been blocked in Vietnam.

A series of emails between the alleged conspirators include conversations describing how they came in contact with Sestak last June.

In an email attributed to Vo, she described Sestak as "this single guy who wants to find someone to be with."

"This guy who works for the U.S. Consulate here came out and joined us for dinner," Vo wrote, according to the complaint. "He's the guy that approves visas for Vietnamese people to go to the United States so he's a really good connection to have. ... He just like to people watch — he does this with the consulate guy (Mike) and they check out girls."

Federal investigators say that in order to receive his bribery money Sestak opened an account at a commercial bank in Bangkok, Thailand, in May 2012. His account, they said, received 35 wire transfers totaling $3.23 million from an account at the Bank of China in Beijing. The Beijing account was linked to a real estate company tied to the conspirators. The money received by Sestak was far beyond the approximately $7,500 that he earned monthly, after taxes, from his jobs as a foreign service officer and member of Navy Reserve, authorities said.

Sestak, who emails indicate was worried about foreign tax liability, drained the $3.23 million from his Thailand bank account by January and used it to purchase at least nine properties, with furnishings, in Thailand.

According to the criminal complaint, Sestak did not disclose his Thailand bank account on a U.S. intelligence financial disclosure form that he filled out last September in preparation for a military assignment. In addition, he allegedly lied to federal investigators during an interview on Oct. 19 when they asked him if he was "aware of any Americans that came into a lot of money when you were there, kind of unexpectedly, not in line with their regular salary?"

"I can't think of anybody that had anything," Sestak answered.

Sestak grew up in Voorheesville and still has parents there, records show.

The complaint also alleges that Sestak arranged for $150,000 to be wired last August to his 40-year-old sister in Yulee, Fla. The money was wired from a Beijing account to a bank in Texas by the wife of the Vietnamese businessman implicated in the conspiracy. The funds were then transferred from Texas to a bank account controlled by Sestak's sister, Jennifer, according to the federal complaint.

"At this point I have no comment," Jennifer Sestak said Friday. She is not accused of wrongdoing in the federal complaint.